I think there is no way that a big, established semiconducter company, which leads the field in audio and power technologies, will go down. So I think I can safely say that National Semiconductor will be around for at least another decade. Oops, did I miss something? Read Ecclesiastes 9:11 - "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the sttrong...but time and circumstance happen to them all" - or words to that effect.